Many modern electronic devices rely on wireless communication, such as Bluetooth technologies, particularly Internet of things (Iot) devices. One Bluetooth standard is Bluetooth low energy (BLE), including versions BLE 4.2, BLE 5.0 and BLE 5.1, which have low power consumption compared to classic Bluetooth standards. Examples of electronic devices that rely on BLE include hearing aids, smart watches, smart sensors (e.g., temperature sensors), insulin pumps, and the like.
Manufacturing testing is performed on BLE devices, referred to as devices under test (DUTs), in order to test the quality of the corresponding receivers and transmitters. Both receiver and transmitter tests are key for a manufacturer to make proper quality assurance determination with regard to its products. Conventional testing includes use of a physical wire connection between the tester and a DUT, and the DUT must be in a non-signaling mode at the time of testing. There are several drawbacks to this type of testing. For example, the DUTs may be very small, in which case there may not be sufficient physical space for populating test points to enable the testing. Also, in order to performing testing in the non-signaling mode, non-signaling firmware must be flashed in the DUT, which increases production and testing time. Also, after performing the test using non-signaling firmware, the signaling firmware must be flashed back in the DUT for normal operations. When the final product requires manual assembly of radio frequency (RF) and power lines inside the DUT, it is difficult to determine the performance of the DUT after final assembly since the test points will not be accessible following the assembly. In addition, the DUTs are tested one at a time with regard to RF performance, which considerably increases test time when multiple DUTs are being tested.
Therefore, a more efficient technique is needed for testing receivers and transmitters in DUTs, where the testing may be performed in the signaling mode, and multiple DUTs may be tested simultaneously.